2nd Asia-Pacific Social Science and Modern Education Conference (SSME 2019) ISBN: 978-1-60595-678-7 Analyzing and Exploring the Line Art in the Newly Edited Huangmei Opera "Chicken Blood Notes" Ting Chen Anqing Normal University, Anqing, Anhui, China [email protected] Keywords: Huangmei opera; Tradition; Line; Spoken parts in an opera; Characteristics Abstract: It is one of the indispensable elements in opera that plays characters with lines and promotes plot. Taking the newly edited traditional Huangmei opera "Chicken Blood Notes" as an example, the role of opera lines and dialects in highlighting the characters in the story and in the opera was analyzed and interpreted. This work summarized the three characteristics of the line art in Huangmei opera "Chicken Blood Notes", and discussed them layer by layer. It is concluded that the lines art of the opera should be consistent with the background of the times when the works are created. Only by grasping its characteristics accurately and comprehending its real intention and spiritual connotation can we endow the traditional works with vitality and make the classics permanent. 1. Introduction Traditional Chinese opera lines, also known as "spoken parts in an opera", play a key role in the performing art development of opera, which is the main expression that influences whether an opera work is artistic or not. Opera lines can also have a significant role in depicting opera images, showing story plots, reflecting ideological themes, promoting conflicts, and even rendering the whole opera atmosphere, etc. With the change of history, opera has gradually entered the modern society. Nowadays, some traditional operas have integrated many creative and stylized lines and dialects in the process of arrangement, adaptation, creation and performance, including some modern network words, terms and other cultural elements. This series of changes has a certain promotion and influence on the ancient Chinese opera art, including the traditional Huangmei opera and many kinds of opera. Taking the newly edited traditional Huangmei opera "Chicken Blood Notes" as an example, the role and characteristics of opera lines in shaping characters and promoting plot were analyzed. 2. Background and Content of "Chicken Blood Notes" A few days ago, on the 70th anniversary of the people's Republic of China founding, the Huangmei opera troupe in Anqing "11" gave a reshuffling performance to the traditional Huangmei opera (commonly known as "36 big plays"), one of which was the traditional Huangmei opera "Chicken Blood Notes". "Chicken Blood Notes" was produced in the middle of Qing Dynasty, which was an early play performed by Hui Combo. In the later period of Xianfeng, there was a confluence of Hui and Huang in Anqing Huining county Shipai town, which was imitated by the teams of troupes. After that, a lot of Hui opera plays have been widely transplanted into Huangmei opera with the establishment of Huangmei opera and its unique style characteristics, "Double Expensive Map" is one of them. The performer of Huangmei opera named it "Chicken Blood Notes", which is more in line with the central theme and plot of the play. The opera content is roughly in the past, Wang Baichang, a businessman in Wangjiazhuang, Xinchang County, Luzhou Prefecture, had a son, Wang Xiangling, who was an advanced scholar, and his daughter-in-law, Chen's, who was diligent, virtuous and had a son. After the death of Wang Baichang's ex-wife, the Kang brought Wang Xiangbao, a son of the Wang family, and were sincere and kind. While Wang Baichang was out in business and Wang Xiangling was going to Beijing for 543 scientific research, Kang family was very unfit and abused his daughter-in-law Chen family and suffered thousands of troubles. Thanks to Wang Xiangbao's pity for his sister-in-law, he went to Beijing to find Wang Xiangling and escort his brother home. Before leaving, Chen family entertained Wang Xiangbao, the youngest brother-in-law, by killing chickens. The blood from the chickens splashed his clothes, and Chen kept them for washing. Kang's mother-in-law found that her son's trace was missing. She slandered Chen's brother-in-law and sent her daughter-in-law to prison with the evidence of blood clothes. Wang Xiangbao rushed to the capital and met his elder brother. They hugged each other and returned home with extra officers. They quickly returned to the execution ground for help and they cross examined the hall and recovered the unjust prison. My sister-in-law does not care about the past, so the family will get together. By reflecting the contradictions and outstanding problems of ancient rural family disputes, the opera praises truth, goodness, beauty, mocks ridicule, malice and ugly, and manifests fraternity and patience. It fully conforms to the essence and value orientation of "harmony" in Chinese traditional virtues, and is closer to the core values of today's society. "Chicken Blood Notes" is a large-scale traditional Huangmei opera. Mr. He Chengjie, who arranges and adapts the opera, said: "this opera was written in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China before the liberation, and has not been presented on the stage for a long time after the liberation. While adapting the content of the play to a large extent and retaining the traditional charm of the opera, it also changed the long and slow expression of the previous story. In the past, this book would last six or seven hours, but now it should be compressed to two hours". In a short period of two hours, the "Chicken Blood Notes", which reappears on the stage, presents the sorrow and joy in daily life and society, the evil and good in human nature, which is amazing. The arrangement and treatment of the story end are seamless. According to the needs of the drama plot development, the breakthrough and innovation show human nature vividly and deeply loved by the audience. 3. Analysis and Artistic Characteristics on the Lines of "Chicken Blood Notes" From the beginning to the end, the opera lines are sincere, simple and straightforward in the process of performing the opera. It not only displays the magnificent theater and special effects of "Chicken Blood Notes", but also deeply understands and realizes the intrinsic value and spiritual connotation of its transmission for the audience. The lines in the opera should not only follow the principle of spoken parts in an opera, but also refer to the characteristics of its own opera. For the meaning and characteristics of lines in modern opera works, different dramatists and writers hold different ideas about them. For example, Lao She suggested "one line, one character image"; Cao Yu suggested "translation for performance"; Zhu Shenghao suggested "keeping the charm of the original"; Yu Guangzhong pointed out that innovation should be "eye-catching for readers, ear penetrating for audiences, and smooth for artists". As far as the lines art in Huangmei opera "Chicken Blood Notes" is concerned, it has the following three characteristics. 3.1. Popularity The popularity of opera language is determined by the stage sense, time and space sense and the wide range of opera audience. First of all, the play serves for the stage performance of the theater. Therefore, the playwright often uses simple and popular words in the process of his work conception and creation, thus facilitating the actors to master and perform quickly. Secondly, opera is often limited by time and space in the process of performance, which urges actors to portray vivid characters and rich expressive drama essence through concise words in a limited time and specific space. Therefore, opera language is bound to be common and easy to understand, which is convenient for actors' performance and audience's understanding. In addition, opera has been an art form suitable for all ages since ancient times. The popularity of its audience also determines the popularity of opera language. Most of the art comes from the daily work and real life for ordinary 544 people, and it has the characteristics of easy to understand. In the Huangmei opera "Chicken Blood Notes", Kang family tried all kinds of methods to frame Chen family, which was fully reflected in Wang Xiangbao's words. Such as "this is called 'a long line never drops a barrel', which is so wicked. It's thanks to his mother's idea. He's not afraid to have a son without an asshole"; "Wang Xiangbao's dog days are really not raised by an individual"; "even this donkey's words are unworthy. It's totally stupid to talk about the marks"; "it's up to you whether you can wear them or not. I'll burn them to my ancestors on Qingming Festival, OK?" The clever use of such lines makes Wang Baoxiang's clown image, which shows his true feelings, likes good and dislikes, is straightforward and generous, and fights against injustice and vivid. At the same time, the natural characteristics of Kang's self-interest, false kindness and ferocity are constantly exposed. Just like this, it is more important to keep the language of the lines easy to understand and popular in the creation and stage performance of opera lines. 3.2. Simplicity The opera connotation is a kind of stage presentation art. The creation of opera plays can never get rid of the artistic fetters from theater display and performance. The stage and theatrical characteristics of opera require that dramatists should follow the principle of "simplicity" in lines production. In the process of displaying opera lines, the limitation of their space will be feeling, and the speech of each character in the opera will be fleeting.